ホルモン焼き

The first thing I thought of when I saw this name on a menu in a Japanese izakaya was some really meaty dish pumped up with testosterone and various anabolic steroids, intended for bodybuilders with hormone problems.

Upon ordering, however, I found out that it consists of odd squishy fried bits in a spicy sauce. So I figured it must be yet another Korean import, especially since the "hormon" bit is usually spelled in katakana, and Korean food is often spicy while traditional Japanese food never is (excluding wasabi, of course).

Only later did I find out that hormon is in fact a shortened form of the Osaka slang word horimono, which means "junk", "something to be thrown away". So hormonyaki means "fried junk", which is relatively apt, considering that the squishy bits turned out to be the stomach lining of an unidentified animal.

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